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  • Line-leader connections / History



    Walter & Group...

    From Mac Brown :

    Hi Gordy,
          The loop connection of Gudebrod is a slick connection for sure in fresh water. Gudebrod came out with it back in the early nineties (they had a special needle for making these loops). It was not popular for a long time but we thought we were really onto a slick connection. You could cast leader out from the rod tip with never a catch.
     
         Another trick with Gudebrod we used to play around with is to pull heavier Gudebrod back and through itself for tapered leaders. Greater mass (more prone to kick) was useful for situations to hook bigger air resistant patterns around the corner at a distance. They also collapsed nicely on the water for varieties of pile layouts. One of the drawbacks was the Gudebrod held more water during pickups (stick was greater). I think the company itself came out with the Chinese finger trick method. I have used a 5-6 inch version of this since the early 90's and have never had it fail. I think whip finishing the end with kevlar thread (monocord) and a touch of Pliobond has no ill effects on performance.
     
         I remember it was in Asheville, NC at the FFF conclave (maybe national?) where I picked it up from an Ohio steelie FF (do not recall his name). Many thanks to whom ever it was though! It is the best connection I know of for light tackle.
     
    Cheers, Mac

     
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    Mac ....  Just to be clear:  Is this a looped sleeve connection to the end of the fly line similar to the one which Cortland places in their line packages ?   Or is it Gudebrod hollow-core braided nylon monofilament line?  I gave up on the Cortland pre-looped ones for big game as I had several pull off.  (May have been my fault for not applying them expertly.)
     
    I found that Gudebrod also makes a hollow-core Hi Viz Spectra backing material.  I've tried it and found no drawback except that the blaze green dye bleeds off onto the fly line.
     
    Another neat connection for light tackle (as I'm sure you know) is the needle knot ... the one where the butt section is passed through the center of the end of the fly line and a snug nail knot is made above the pass-through segment.  For obvious reasons, it won't work with heavy nylon mono butt sections.
     
    Gordy
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                                                                           Fly Casting History

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    Guy Manning sends some new information about the availability of Cliff Netherton's books from the ACEF :

    You wrote:

    HISTORY OF THE SPORT OF CASTING, Golden Years , Copyright 1983 by Cliff Netherton. ISBN  0-905960-2-X.  Also available in soft cover, ISBN  09605960-3-8. 

    I think this may also be available from the American Casting Education Foundation.

     

     That is volume II of the set of 2. I never realized there were different titles.

     Guy Manning

    FFF Master Certified Casting Instructor

    Moderator FFFCCI Yahoo Group

    www.castflys.net

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     From Rick Worwood:

    Hi Gordy
    I found a couple more line dressing tins, Silicote; line dressing for spinning and flylines (no rubbing or drying) made in U.S.A. by Silicote Corp. Oshkosh Wis. and Cortland "333" flyline cleaner, Cortland Line Co., inc Cortland N.Y.  these might bring back some memories !
    Rick
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    Rick.... 
     
     Yes, they do! Mucilin, however, goes way back to the time of the "gut" leaders.  It was a mineral based material mainly used for dressing flies, but many used it for the tippets as well.  I recall that it was made by a company in England.
    (The consumate fly angler would dry his fly on a patch of amadou, a European fungus once used as a hydroscopic agent by surgeons, and then dress it.)
     
    The term, "gut" has been used to describe various materials.  In Treatytse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle (Dame Juliana Berners) it was dyed horsehair.  Samuel Pepys' diary (1660 - 1669) mentioned fishing with a filament of gut string stronger than a horsehair, and varnished. Either the material wasn't described or the description was lost in the translation of the code in which the diary had been written.    Spanish silkworm gut was used in the late 1700's.
     
    I recall that the Japanese came out with what was called, "synthetic gut" in the 1930's.  I was told that this was a rudimentary filament of what was later called Rayon (derived from wood fibers).  According to Ernie Schwiebert, however, it was really twisted silk material which was saturated with a waterproofing gum. It was terrible..... would come apart in salt water. It would split longitudinally after many casts, too. *
     
    Nylon (Du Pont Co.) was invented just prior to WWII and was used for parachute cords during that war, but I don't recall it being available as fishing line or monofilament nylon tippet material during the war ... nor until about 1947.  Present day nylon monofilaments have improved dramatically during the past few years.  One can now choose nylon mono. materials of varied stiffness profiles, tensile strength, "impact" tensile strength, colors, knot strengths, etc., etc.
     
    "Catgut" used for suture material by surgeons was not made from cats at all.... rather from collagen derived from sheep intestines.  (Although the elastic fibers in the ligamentum nuchae of the neck of the cat is a remarkable material.)
     
    After soaking to make it pliable enough to tie, "gut" leaders were treated with all sorts of unctions often prepared by fly fishermen themselves in addition to various proprietary concoctions including Mucilin.  The knot strength of the tippet material was poor and unreliable.  For this reason, my father (and many others) would snell the tippet to the fly hook,  ..... and then tie the fly.  I remember that some salmon flies came with the gut tippet incorporated this way in the fly tie. Those fly hooks had no eye.  Some of the old British ones, had the gut material tied into the fly so as to form a small gut loop which served as the eye. **
     
    Rick ....  Being a classic salmon fly tier, I'm sure you know a lot more than I do about that.
     
    It's interesting that one of the very latest tarpon flies is tied this way.  The shock tippet being snelled to the hook right behind the eye.  It is not passed through the eye.  This is an epoxy coated fly with the epoxy covering the snell knot as well as the hook eye which become the head of an imitation Palolo worm. Credit goes to Gordon Baggett of Florida for this clever and effective fly.  He kept it undisclosed and swore us to secrecy for quite a while before surpising us by going public with it. ***
     
    * TROUT by Ernest Schwiebert, p. 709.
     
    **  THE ATLANTIC SALMON, by Lee Wulff, p. 130 ..
     
    *** Salt Water Fly Fisherman,  Jan. / Feb., 2009, pp. 40-45, WORMING up a STORM, by Mike Mazur and p. 28, STRAIGHTEN IT UP, by Gordon Baggett.
     
    When tying and epoxying this fly, the tyer can elect to leave the eye of the hook exposed or to bury it in the "worm head".
     
    The concept of the tippet snelled within the fly fly gives strength to the old _expression_, "What goes around comes around" !
     
    Gordy